The Bucket List
by McDiggin'It
Summary: She has a secret. He has a death wish. An accidental meeting turns into a journey to fulfill ones bucket list, and another's purpose in life.
1. Chapter 1

Title: The Bucket List

Summary: She has a secret. He has a death wish. An accidental meeting turns into a journey to fulfill ones bucket list, and another's purpose in life.

A/N: I was inspired when me and my niece were watching "A Walk To Remember" together. It's not going to be exactly like the movie because I tweaked it to fit the plot I had in mind, but I'm pretty sure some of you know the conclusion to this fic already. I promise I put a lot of thought into this, and I actually really like its outcome. I hope you guys will like it too. Let me know what you guys think!

-McDiggin'It

...

Morgana has a secret. One that she has never told anyone... but she supposes, that has more to do with the fact that she found out about her secret just a few weeks ago, than her not actually wanting to tell anyone.

But then again, now that she knows, she doesn't _want_ to tell anyone.

"It's not good news." Dr. Leon had told her.

She had pinched her forearm and swallowed her initial fear when she asked, "How long do I have left?"

"Six... maybe seven months."

She had cried for a week straight, before realizing that there is no use for tears. There's no use for anything. She had gone to work the week after, and turned in her resignation letter. She got approval, and then spent 3 weeks in her flat, packing up her things and writing letters to every person she has ever cared about. She ignored all the texts and phone calls from her family and friends. After a month, her brother Arthur had showed up to her flat and demanded to know why she's been ignoring his calls and texts. She doesn't tell him the real reason, choosing instead to tell him a white lie.

"I've been busy."

Arthur had stared incredulously at her. "So have I. But I'm not hiding out in my flat, ignoring the whole entire world!"

Their little argument lasted half an hour before Arthur finally left, promising to visit her again after she'd sort out her life. She had felt numb afterwards, realizing that she will never be able to sort her life out.

She stays indoors, binge watching her favorite television series and movies, or rereading her favorite books. After a month of that, she got bored, and decided to just go out at night for walks in the park a few blocks away from her flat.

By the end of the month, she was ready to blow that idea too… but then she saw him. A tall, lanky man in a dark coat, green shirt, and jeans. He was standing alone, staring out over the small pond in the middle of the park. She watched him for a few moments, wondering what he's thinking about since he looked to be deep in thought. And then he just started walking into the pond. Morgana thought this was odd, and then she thought that maybe he had dropped something into it… that is, until he reached the middle of the pond, waist deep in water, and slowly dipped himself lower and lower until he disappeared completely from view.

Morgana's eyes widen as she looks around quickly, and then realized that she's the only other person around. She waits a few moments before she quickly walks over and stands exactly in the spot where the man had been standing. She waits a few moments again, before it hits her that this man, was trying to drown himself. Anger floods her mind because here she is, not having a choice in when she dies, and this man is trying to kill himself. She quickly shrugs out of her coat, not even noticing the fact that she's only wearing a white shirt, before she too begins wading through the pond. It takes her only 20 seconds to get to him, and she does not hesitate a beat when she reaches down into the water and takes a hold of the first thing her hands come in contact with, before pulling up with all of her strength.

She realizes that she had actually taken hold of the collar of his coat. He starts coughing and wheezing the moment his head breaks the surface of the water, before rubbing the water out of his eyes and looking at her with a confused look. "What the fuck?" he asks quite rudely.

Morgana glares. "I should be asking you the same thing!"

"Excuse me?" he asks, looking around the pond and park before looking back at her again. "Who the hell are you?"

"I just saved your life!"

"What are you talking about?"

"You were trying to drown yourself!"

The man stares, blinking rapidly before laughing out loud. "Is that what it looked like to you?"

Morgana blinks at him in confusion. "You… you weren't—,"

"Trying to kill myself?" the man laughs even harder, coughing in between each breath. He shakes his head and begins wading back up towards dry land. Morgana follows quietly, still confused as ever.

"If you weren't trying to drown yourself, then what the hell were you doing in the pond?"

He turns around and looks at her for a long while, before his eyes trail from her face and to her chest. "Cold?" he asks with a smirk.

"What?" she looks down at herself and immediately finds sense in his question. Her white shirt is soaked through, see-through, and she _is_ cold, her nipples making sure that anyone who sees her is made known of that. She quickly folds her arms across her chest in hopes of covering herself up. Her face would've burned in embarrassment if it weren't so bloody cold.

"Merlin." he says, stretching his hand out to her.

"What?" she asks as she stares down at his hand.

He chuckles lightly. "My name is Merlin."

She goes to shake his hand, then realizes that he's smirking again, and is trying to trick her into moving her arms out of the way of her chest. So she keeps her arms exactly where they are and nods to him in acknowledgement. "Morgana."

He drops his hand back to his side and smiles. "Nice to meet you."

She nods again. "So what were you doing in the pond?" she asks again.

He laughs and stoops down, picking up the coat she took off earlier when she decided to "save" him. He opens it up and places it over her shoulders. She slants him a thankful look. "Thanatologist."

"Excuse me?" she asks in confusion.

He sighs and begins walking, leaving her to follow him again. "I'm a Thanatologist."

"I'm not sure I've ever heard of that." she says honestly.

He nods, "It's not really a common job… not really a job at all." he shrugs, "… but it's quite intriguing."

She stares at him as they reach the path that leads to the East side of the park. "And it's intriguing to immerse yourself in a pond in the middle of the night when it's 30 degrees out?"

He shrugs, "I study death… what better way to study it than to actually be part of the action?"

She's taken aback by that. "That's actually a thing?"

He looks over at her as he digs his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Studying death?"

"Yes."

He chuckles, "Of course… near death experiences can be quite eye-opening."

"Really?" she finds herself miles away, her thoughts going back to her conversation with her Dr. Leon.

 _"For the time being, I implore you to go out and do the things you've always wanted to do. Live life."_

"Yeah," Merlin says, drawing her right back to their conversation. "It gives you this odd sense of appreciation for the time you have… however long that may be."

She's quiet for long moment as they continue to walk down the path. Finally, she looks up at him and asks, "What would've happened if I hadn't pulled you out of the pond?"

He shrugs nonchalantly. "I would've died."

She blinks incredulously at him, not entirely sure if he's joking or not. But then he starts laughing. A laugh so contagious, she finds herself laughing as well. Although _why_ , she's not entirely sure.

She comes to a stop when they've reached her usual stopping point. Her flat is only one block away then, and she watches him turn to her with a wide smile on his face. "What?" she asks curiously.

He shrugs, "Thank you."

"What for?"

"Saving my life." he says jokingly. "And for this very interesting night."

She smiles at him and nods her head. "Anytime."

"Okay… save me again tomorrow night?" he asks cheekily.

Morgana laughs, "What will it be tomorrow?"

He shrugs, "Maybe snakes?"

She makes a face and shivers. "Absolutely not. You're alone on that one." she pretends to turn around and leave, but then his hand is on her wrist, and he's pulling her gently to face him.

"Food poisoning?"

She wonders if he actually suggests those kinds of things to other women he invites to his death studies. But his hopeful eyes tell her that he doesn't really invite people on his studies. It makes her smile, and it makes her nod. "Okay."

"Same time and place?"

She shrugs, "It's your call."

He laughs lightly and nods. "Same time and place then… but after that, you get to pick."

She quirks an eyebrow at him. "We're making this an everyday thing?"

"No… it's technically an every night thing." he replies cheekily.

Morgana laughs and rolls her eyes at him. It's crazy. Insane even, that she's enjoying the company of a total stranger, and making plans to meet up with him in the middle of the night, alone in a park, to embark on a food poisoning adventure tomorrow night. But she doesn't care. What's the worst that could happen? She won't be around very long to regret anything. Might as well make the most of the time she has left. So she grins and tells him, "I'll make a list."

"Of what?" he asks curiously.

She shrugs, "Of things I'd like to do before I die."

He stares at her for a long moment before smiling so wide, his dimples show. "A bucket list."

Morgana nods. "Yeah… a bucket list."

When she returns to her flat, she couldn't stop thinking about Merlin and the adventure they were about to have together. She bathes, changes, and then sinks into her bed with a clean sheet of paper and a pen. Tonight, she's going to write her bucket list. And starting tomorrow, she will begin crossing off everything on her list.

…

A/N: Hope you guys like it so far! Let me know what you think!

-McDiggin'It


	2. Chapter 2

Title: The Bucket List

...

Chapter Two:

...

They meet at exactly the same spot by the pond. She finds him sitting on the grass with his back to her, and a picnic basket beside him. She smiles to herself as she draws closer and closer to him with each step.

He turns and smiles widely before getting up and opening his arms wide as if to hug her. But then he gestures down with his hands at his picnic basket. "I brought the poison." He says.

She grins. "And I brought the list." She digs into the pocket of her jeans and pulls out the folded piece of paper that contains her bucket list.

"Perfect." He grins and gestures for her to sit down beside him. He then reaches over and plucks the paper out of her hands. "Mind if I take a look?"

She shakes her head. "Go ahead."

He opens it and looks at its contents before looking up at her with a blank expression. "Number 1 is blank." He points out.

She nods, "I haven't figured out what my number one will be."

"Why not?"

She shrugs, "I don't know... I want it to be something spectacular."

He nods and smiles at her as he looks through her list again. He chuckles to himself. "So tonight, we can cross off number ten."

She leans over, looking at what she wrote for number ten. She hasn't memorized the list by heart yet. She too chuckles when she sees what she wrote.

 _10- Eat something dangerous_

He smiles at her before folding the paper back up and placing it in the pocket of his shirt. "You ready?" He asks.

Morgana raises her eyebrows in question. "For what?"

He turns away, opening the basket he brought with him and pulling out a small plastic container. "To eat something dangerous." He grins before pulling the lid open and showing her what's inside.

Morgana wasn't exactly sure of what she was looking at. It looks a bit like a pear-shaped peach. "What is it?" She asks, reaching for it.

Merlin pulls the container away, "Careful." He says seriously. "It's a Jamaican fruit called ackee... and majority of it is poisonous."

Again, Morgana couldn't tell if he's serious or not. "You're joking, right?"

"Nope." Merlin grins and takes the fruit out of the container before breaking it in half. The inside looks particularly dry and inedible, with 4 large black seeds. "The seeds, leaves, and twigs of the fruit contain hypoglycin, which could cause vomiting. Also, if consumed while it's unripe, you could die."

Morgana stares, her mouth hanging open.

Merlin then looks at her and laughs. "Luckily for you, I enjoy your company too much, so..." he turns and grabs another container from his picnic basket and hands it to her. "I packed a poison free, ripe, and properly prepared fruit that I'm 99.5% sure is safe to consume."

She takes the container from his hand, opening it to find a slightly soggier version of the fruit he had in the first container. She wrinkles her nose at it and looks at him. "This isn't a very enticing looking fruit."

Merlin laughs at that and shrugs his shoulders, "There's no beauty in danger." With that, he hands her a plastic fork. "Try it. It's actually pretty tasty."

If this were happening last month, she would've thought he was a complete lunatic and said no. But right now, danger means as much to her as a million dollars means to a rock. With her plastic fork, she picks off a small piece of the fruit, before popping it quickly into her mouth. She chews slowly, trying to separate the taste from its slimy texture. It has a mild and buttery taste, with a tangy base that makes her cringe. Other than that though, it's... quite an interesting flavor. She smiles as she looks over at Merlin to find him staring at her with his mouth open. "What?" She asks.

He shakes his head. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you actually have a death wish. Either that, or you really trust me."

Her eyebrows furrow at him. "Why? Did you poison me?"

He makes a face, "Absolutely not... but most people would ask me to eat something dangerous before they try it themselves."

Morgana laughs at that and shakes her head. "I guess I trust you."

This makes Merlin smile, showing off his dimples again. After a moment of silence, he turns back to his picnic basket once more and pulls out yet another container. He pops it open and places it between them. "Ham and cheese sandwich?"

Morgana smiles widely as she hands him back the container with the ackee fruit inside. "Thank you."

He nods as they both pick out a sandwich for themselves. He then takes the list from his pocket and hands it back to her. "And now you can cross number 10 off of your list.

Morgana grins widely as she takes it from him and does exactly that.

One down, nine to go.

...

 _9- T.P someone's flat_

Merlin smiles at her as she jogs slowly towards him. She blames the cold and her jogging for the way her heart rate increases.

She hands him her list when asks for it, smiling to herself as he makes an exaggerated thinking face.

"Hmmm..." he looks at her and quirks an eyebrow at her. "What's the story behind number nine?"

She shrugs, "When I was younger, my brother would drag me with him to pull awful pranks on people. I never participated though. I just stood watch while he and his friends did all the pranking. The one prank he pulled that I almost participated in, was TP'ing Joey Larkin's house."

"Who's Joey Larkin?" Merlin asks curiously.

"A boy in my sixth grade class at Morden Primary. He told the whole school that we made out in the janitors closet."

"Did you?"

Morgana scoffs, rolling her eyes. "He _wishes_ we did. The only physical contact I _ever_ made with Joey Larkin, was when I sucker punched him in the gonads the day after he started spreading the rumor."

At this, Merlin laughs hysterically and applauds her. "Remind me to never piss you off." He says half seriously.

She laughs as well and continues, "I regretted not TP'ing Joey's house. Unfortunately, he moved away before I could get my brother to pull another TP prank on him."

"Your brother seems like a great guy."

Morgana smiles sadly as she thinks of Arthur and the way she had ignored him completely over the past couple of weeks. She will have to call him tomorrow and apologize for her horrible behavior.

"So..." Merlin cuts her thoughts off, "...any idea where Joey Larkin currently resides?"

She shakes her head. "The last time I ever saw him, he was crying in the hallway at school after I punched him. He avoided me for the rest of the school year, and then he moved away during the summer."

Merlin laughs and pulls out his phone. "No problem. I'll bet you £3.56 that I can find out where he lives in just ten minutes."

She furrows her eyebrows at him. "£3.56?"

"Yep."

"Why £3.56? Why not five pounds?"

He shrugs, "Why not £3.56?"

She shrugs too, "I don't know. Normal people usually go for even numbers."

"Well maybe I'm not normal." He grins and wiggles is eyebrows at her.

She laughs at that and playfully pushes his shoulder. "Fine. I'll bet £3.56 that you _won't_ find him. There are probably hundreds of Joey Larkins who live in-"

"237 Paddington, Westminster." Merlin says triumphantly with much confidence.

"What?" Morgana asks incredulously. He turns his phone around and shows her a GPS location, with a pinpoint beside a picture of (she couldn't be sure) a man with Joey Larkin's hair, complexion, and buck teeth. "How did you even find him?"

Merlin smiles, "There's this handy little tool I use when I need to find someone."

Morgana raises her eyebrows at him in question. "Are you a British policeman as well?" She jokes, earning her one of his adorable dimpled smiles as he raises his phone again and shows her a black app with a large capitalized red letter A in the Old English font. Looking at him, he shrugs his shoulders and flashes her a toothy grin.

"National archives... narrowed down all the Larkins who lived near Morden Primary school before 2000. Turns out, there was only one Larkin family in that area, and they moved to Manchester… from that family, a Joseph Larkin, who is now a journalist, resides in Westminster by himself."

"You got all of that from a national archives mobile app?" Morgana asks disbelievingly.

Merlin laughs, "No… I googled him as well. He has an online piece written every month."

"Wow." Morgana laughs as well. "Remind me never to piss _you_ off."

He grins and offers her his arm. "Shall we?"

"Where are we going?" Morgana asks inquisitively even as she loops her arm through his.

"Your flat."

At this, she slants him a baffled look. "For what?"

He looks her up and down, "Well if you're gonna TP someone's house, I think you should wear something more comfortable, and preferably something that blends in. You look like the bloody sunrise in that yellow sweater." he jokes.

"Hey!" Morgana laughs and lightly slaps him in the arm as they begin towards her flat. "I love this sweater."

"I love it too. And so will old Joey Larkin when he sees this bright yellow figure,TP'ing his flat in the middle of the night."

"Wait, we're TP'ing Joey's house tonight?"

Merlin nods. "Yes, I believe that's why we had a conversation of where to find him." his tone drips with sarcasm.

Morgana laughs as he begins to pull her along. "I guess I owe you £3.56 then."

Merlin laughs and shakes his head. "No, I got it."

"What?"

He grins at her, "It's £1.78 for 4 rolls of toilet paper. And just in case, I thought we should buy two of those bundles, which-"

"Add up to £3.56." She finishes with a laugh.

As they come to her flat, she invites him inside, where she asks him to wait in the sitting room while she changes. When she returns in a full black outfit, she finds him looking through her book shelf. He grins when he sees her, and straightens up before walking over to her while looking her up and down in approval. He whistles and rubs his chin as if in awe.

She's only wearing skinny jeans and a black hoodie. "I thought I'd dress comfortably for the crime we're about to commit."

He nods and chuckles to himself. "Yes, of course, Bonnie Parker." He says cheekily.

Morgana snorts, "So that would make you Clyde Barrow?"

Merlin grins and offers her his arm again before pulling her to the full mirror she had hanging in her hallway. They stand in front of it, staring at their reflections. Merlin then shakes his head. "Nope… I think we look so much sexier than those two. We'd be the most attractive criminals ever."

Morgana laughs, but she has to admit, he's right. They do look quite good together.

They decide to take a train to Westminster, which takes about an hour and 45 minutes. When they get there, Merlin orders them an uber to a convenience store, where they purchase 8 rolls of toilet paper, and a pack of skittles.

Finally, the mission begins. They're hiding out behind a bush across the street from Joey Larkin's house, waiting for the streets to clear. It takes about an hour, in which they spend it talking about their childhoods while eating skittles.

Morgana learns that Merlin is an only child, who spent most of his life traveling, due to his fathers job. He'd attended 9 different schools, until his father finally retired. Now his parents are living comfortably in Paris, France, while he's living here in London, and working as a College Professor at Kings University in the morning, and as a thanatologist at night.

She tells him about her parents and her brother, where she went to school, what she used to do as a Fashion Art Director, and pretty much everything else going on in her life… except the reason why she's so determined to do whatever it takes to get her bucket list done. And when he asks about it, she tells him that she just won't have time to do it later. It's technically not a lie. She's just not being completely honest.

When the coast is clear, the two cross the street before ducking down in front of the white fence in front of Joey Larkins house. Morgana looks at Merlin with a hesitant expression. "Are you sure this is his house?"

"No." Merlin says honestly. "But we can pretend it is."

"What?" she whispers incredulously. He only shrugs at her. Morgana shakes her head, "I don't think I can do this." She tells him.

Merlin smiles as he moves in closer to her and takes her hand while looking deeply into her eyes. "This might be your last chance to TP Joey Larkin's house, Morgana."

As she stares back at him with her heart beating wildly in her chest, she knew he was wrong. This is _definitely_ her last chance to TP Joey Larkin's house. With that final thought, she takes a roll of toilet paper from him, opens it up a few rolls, and gets to her feet.

Merlin looks like he's about to say something else, but Morgana is already raising the roll back, and unleashing it over the house behind the white fence. She watches as it sails over the house, the white paper unwinding longer and longer until its draped over the roof. A feeling of excitement and joy comes over her as she laughs before stooping down and grabbing another roll.

Merlin does the same, picking up two rolls and throwing it at the house. Toilet paper sails through the air, unrolling in midair, one after the other until the house is covered in multiple streams of white. Before long, there's only one roll left. Merlin picks it up and holds it up to Morgana. "Last one." He says with a wide grin. "Make it count."

Morgana grins back as she takes it and looks at the house. Before she could launch it at the house however, the front door swings open, and a man steps out, looking in their direction.

"HEY!" He bellows angrily. "I've already called the cops!"

Morgana knew instantly that it was the very same Joey Larkin from her sixth grade class. He still had the same hairstyle, same buck teeth, and the same tiny ears. The anger she felt all those years ago when everyone labeled her a tramp after Joey's lie, came back to her in full force. Without hesitation, she pulls her arm back and unleashes her anger by throwing the roll directly at the man in front of the house.

Merlin howls with laughter as the roll hits Joey Larkin directly in the face. Joey cries out in anger before running towards them. That's all they need to see before the two begin sprinting away down the street.

Morgana laughs alongside Merlin as he takes her hand and pulls her down another street. He quickly pushes her behind a bush before jumping on top of her, knees on either side of her hips, and pressing his index finger against his lips to indicate that they be quiet. They stay that way, with Merlin laying on top of Morgana while they wait for Joey Larkin to go away.

There's a silent moment where they just stare at each other, faces close together and eyes connecting in the most entrancing stare-down of all time. But then there are police car sirens coming from somewhere down the street, and they quickly jump to their feet.

They pretend to be a couple, out on the night for a walk, holding hands and walking casually down the street. One of the police cars pull over on the curb beside them, and its window rolls down, revealing a burly cop with a greying mustache.

"Good evening, officer." Merlin greets politely.

"Good evening." The officer nods, "Have any of you seen a couple of teenagers running down this street?"

"Errr, no." Merlin answers. "Why? Is something wrong?"

The officer sighs and shakes his head, "Nothing wrong, really. Just a couple of young kids thinking it's funny to TP someone's house."

"Oh." Merlin laughs and looks at Morgana. "Well we haven't seen anyone. My wife and I were just out for a nice little walk."

Morgana freezes for a second before remembering that he's only acting, and plays her part by laying her head against his shoulder. Merlin pulls her closer to his side and grins.

The officer nods at them. "That's fine. We'll probably end up just writing this one off as a couple of kids pulling pranks." He shrugs. "You two have a good night."

"You too, officer." Merlin calls as the policeman drives off.

Morgana immediately dissolves into a fit of giggles. Merlin joins in a few moment later, but neither one moves from their very close positions.

"You are so good at this." She says mindlessly. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you've done this before."

Merlin chuckles and shrugs at her. "I've had my fair share of trouble when I was younger."

"Oh?" She smirks as she begins pulling him along. "Tell me about it."

He agrees, but only after calling them an uber to the train station.

On the train, Morgana crosses off number 9 on her list, but not before Merlin changed the word _someone's_ to _Joey Larkin's_ house.

Two down, eight more to go.

...

A/N: Hope you guys liked it! I told you all that the inspiration behind this fic is from "A Walk to Remember" the movie, but it won't flow with its storyline. This has its own plot, as well as its own twist and such. Next chapter will have go a bit more in depth into Morgana and Merlin's separate lives. Thanks for reading and I really appreciate all your thoughts on the previous chapter! Let me know what you all think of this chapter! :)

-McDiggin'It


End file.
